It is winter but the leaves are still on the ground. The
playground is surrounded by a small wood in a city park. The
fence around the playground is made from railroad ties and you
can easily step over the fence, and they do; kids do not
necessarily come in through the doors.

Sam arrives at the playground and steps over the fence. He
spots Pete, the playworker, and he jumps and hugs him. Sam is
15 years old. He grew up at the playground and now volunteers
as a playground helper. Sam and Pete sit down with the other
staff around a wooden table and drink some tea.

Children start arriving at the playground, and they call from
the window. Sam runs to the window, "Hello Beth!"

"I would like some nails and a hammer," she says and hands Sam
her bike key. He puts the bike key with a Lego pirate, a
sparkly bracelet, and other irreplaceable childhood
possessions.

"Here you go," he replies. Beth is 10 years old with shoulder
length brown hair. She's short for her age, and everyone
thinks she is seven or eight. Beth comes inside with
Matt. Matt is 9 years old and lives a couple of blocks from
Beth.

"Pete! Pete!" she says, "Come play with us!" More kids
surround Pete. Pete chases them out the door, and they run
out of the building and jump onto a big cushy mat covered by a
circus tent.

The kids bounce towards the edge of the mat and then hop back,
tempt- ing Pete to see if he can catch them. They try to avoid
being captured, but not too hard. If they get pulled off,
then they get thrown high up in the air and back down onto the
mat.

On the other side of the playground a cluster of children slip
out between the fence where the water flows through. The
water creates rivers through the leaves and the children lay
planks across the water and attempt to walk across without
getting wet. The water is only a couple of inches deep but it
doesn't seem to matter; the game is in their imagination.

Beth spots Sam and she is excited to see him. They have been
hanging out all week. "Come help me and my friend Matt build
something," she says.

"Sure," says Sam. Sam, Beth and Matt discuss the
possibilities.

"We could build a pirate ship," says Beth.

"...Or a house and then we could build furniture," says Matt.

"We should build a tree house and a ladder to climb into it,"
says Sam.

"...Or a post office," says Matt.

"Yeah! And then everyone could have mailboxes so their mail
wouldn't get lost," says Beth.

"Yeah, and all the houses could have numbers so they know where
to deliver the mail," says Matt.

"That would be so cool!" says Beth. "Let's do it."

"Okay, so what do we need?" wonders Sam.

"Hmmm, okay Matt, you get three hammers and some nails...I'll
get the wood," says Beth.

"Where should we build it?" says Sam.

"In the center of all the forts and houses in the playground!"
says Beth.

"Yeah, how 'bout next to Jaime and Molly's house?" asks Matt.

"Awesome," says Beth.

In a couple of minutes the carpenters meet up at the select
spot carrying all the tools and wood. Sam has cleared "the
lot" of a couple pieces of wood, a cart, and two tires. "Okay,
Sam, you hold up that 4x4," says Beth. She starts to nail a
2x4 (2 inch by 4 inch piece of wood) onto the 4x4 to start the
base of the building.

Matt calls to Pete, "Come over! We are building a post
office."

"That is a great idea," says Pete, walking over.

"Pete, can you hold the other 4x4 up so I can nail it?" Pete
holds the wood up and Matt nails the 2x4 to it. They raise all
the corner posts and then begin nailing in strips of wood
around the sides, starting from the bot- tom and moving up.
Some of the pieces don't fit; they are too wide or too long,
but they get nailed on just the way they are. They hammer at
least one nail on each side of the boards. Sam says that it
will be stronger if they put at least two nails on each side,
so they do. They nail four 2x4's around the corner posts and
then lay strips of wood across the roof and nail them on.

"Let me try standing on the roof," exclaims Matt. Matt jumps
up and poses himself on top of the structure, grinning and
laughing as the structure starts to sway slightly beneath him.
"I guess we need to support this better," he yells "Ahh, I am
coming down." He leaps off the roof as if it were a tall
building, when in fact the post office is only 4 feet off the
ground. "I made it," he says. "Lets go finish supporting the
roof and the walls." It has been about 2 hours since they
started the post office and the outside is almost done.

"This is awesome," decides Beth. "Tomorrow we can make a post
office sign and decorate the inside." Beth, Matt, and Sam sit
inside the Post Office discussing their lives, school, their
dreams, and eventually get around to how the post office will
work.

At the end of the day, Pete does not bother to close the gate.
He says it is winter and there are not so many children. As we
leave, Beth and Matt and some other kids consider the details
of their new postal system.